The progression of cancer in patients is characterized by the invasion of cells between organs through the bloodstream to set up colonies in the different parts of the body. Detecting these ‘circulating tumor cells’ (also referred to as “CTCs”) is extremely challenging owing to their low abundance (e.g., as low as a few cells per mL) in the presence of large numbers of non-target cells and molecules. In recent years, many different forms of microfluidic device have been developed to capture and detect rare CTCs. However, despite their impressive clinical demonstrations, these devices are generally limited in their capabilities.
It is desired to provide a device and method for the detection of target entities that alleviate one or more difficulties of the prior art, or that at least provide a useful alternative.